Mesa Boogie 50 Caliber Plus Combo Reviews 5

I aquired it in trade from a friend. It was new. ~$1100.

It's a compact good sounding tube amp, able to give a wide range of sounds. It has two channels, one can change with a simple footswitch. The footswitch has an LED indicating the clean channel is on. The amp has plenty of gain and is capable of a wide range of clean and overdriven sounds. The 5 band graphic EQ, in addition to it's tone controls, allows for an extreme ability to shape the overall voice of the amp. The amp is very loud, and sounds even better driving a good extension cab. For 10 years I used this amp as my regular gigging amp without any problems. It's compact and with a shoulder slung bag for your cables, you can make it from the car to the stage in one trip by holding the amp in one hand and the guitar in the other.

At really high volumes the chassis vibrations wear the preamp tubes down much faster. However, that's pretty typical of any combo played really loud. I can't think of anything I didn't like about the amp. It's rugged and dependable. 10 years of gigging and dragging it to practoice spaces, and it still sounded great.

Solid and sturdy. Very soundly constructed, except for the little plastic clips that hold the preamp tube retainer piece. They break after a few tube changes. It's a great amp in all ways. It would probably last over 50 years.

This was the best little knockabout amp I've ever used. When it was new, it was a fairly expensive amp, but it's been so useful that it's worth twice that to me. However, the going used price is about $450, so they are killer deal for a used amp.

Brother Bob rated this unit 5 on 2003-07-10.

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